‘DRACULA’ OPENS WAY OFF BROADWAY THEATER

Orange County’s new Way Off Broadway theater company makes its debut tonight with “Dracula--A Halloween Haunt.”

“What better bloodthirsty saga at Halloween time?” asks Tony Reverditto, the troupe’s founder-director. “This Dracula will surprise people, because it’s a more updated version. But we promise a full range of chills and fun.”

The play, by John Mattera, will run through Sunday and Wednesday through Oct. 30 at 8 p.m., with a special 9 p.m. performance Oct. 31 at 1058 E. First St., Santa Ana.

The 13-member cast from Orange County and Los Angeles is headed by Luciano Divisconti (who is billed as Romanian-born, from the Transylvania area no less), Roy Fussell, Meera Narasimhan and Holly Hayes.

Reverditto, an Anaheim native and Cypress College theater arts graduate who has worked in films and TV and toured in revues, said he hopes Way Off Broadway will develop into an actors’ studio as well as a producing company.

Meanwhile, he said--noting that the troupe’s 50-seat theater is in the basement of its 69-year-old building--”We’re Orange County’s only underground theater.”

(Tickets to “Dracula--A Halloween Haunt” are $8 for adults, $5 for children and senior citizens. The audience will be required to wear costumes for the Oct. 31 performance. Call (714) 547-8997.)